SCHILLER, FRIEDRICII JOHANN CHRISTOPHI was born at Marbach, a small town of Wurtemberg, on the banks of the Neckar, on the 18th Nov. 1759. His father, who had been a surgeon in the Bavarian army, and had served in the Netherlands during the succes sion war, obtained a captain's commission from the Duke of Wurtemberg, and he was principally em ployed in laying out the pleasure grounds at Ludwigs burg and Solitude.
Young Schiller received his earliest instructions from one Moser, pastor and schoolmaster in the vil lage of Lorch, and he seems to have at this time taken up the idea of devoting himself to the clerical profes sion. He accordingly studied at Ludwigsburg in re ference to this profession; and he underwent in four successive years the annual examination before. the Stutgard commission, to which young aspirants to the church are subjected.
The Duke of Wurtemberg having provided a free seminary at Stutgard, pressed Schiller's father to avail himself of its advantages for his son. This offer embarrassed them exceedingly ; but notwithstanding their previous determination, that young Schiller should be educated for the church, he was enrolled in the Stutgard school in 1773, for the purpose of fol lowing the profession of the law. The system of mi litary drilling which prevailed in this school, and which gave formality to the amusements as well as to the studies of the pupils, accorded ill with the uncon strained freedom which Schiller had formerly enjoy ed. Hence he was soon disgusted with his situation, and in 1775 he renounced for ever all views towards the profession of the law ; but he passed only from the study of law to that of medicine, not as a more congenial pursuit, but as the means of detaching him self from one less attractive. He had begun to study in secret Plutarch, and Shakspeare, arid Klopstock, Lessing, Herder, and Goethe. His admiration of the Messiah of Klopstock led him to compose, when he was only fourteen years old, an epic poem called " Moses." His attention was next directed to the drama, by the great popularity of the Ugolino of Ger stenberg, and the Gotz Pon Berlichingen of Goethe; and he composed a tragedy called COS7120 Von Medicis, some fragments of which he inserted in his Robbers.
When Schiller was in his 19th year, he began his tragedy of the Robbers, the publication of which ex cited the greatest interest. Translations of it imme diately appeared in almost all the languages of Europe, and were everywhere read with the mingled feelings of admiration and aversion. In Germany it was re ceived with the most extraordinary enthusiasm; and though the general opinion was in its favour, yet the severest censures were passed on its moral tendency. He was accused of having injured the cause of mora lity, and of having excited the fiery temperaments of youth to pursue the fortunes of his abandoned hero. It has even been stated, that, under its pernicious in fluence, several students at Leipsig deserted their college, and resolved to form a troop of banditti in the Bohemian forest ; but this and similar stories were entirely false, and had their origin in the cir cumstance of a German nobleman having been driven to the highway by a long course of debauchery and extravagance.
Nothing seems to have been more remote from Schiller's intention than to produce any such effects; and he even speaks in his preface of the moral influ ence of his piece in terms which, while they do ho nour to his heart, evince at the same time his inexpe rience and ignorance of the world. Schiller had finished the original sketch of the Robbers in 1778, but he had kept it secret till he had completed his medical studies. In 1778, he wrote a Latin essay on the Philosophy of Physiology, which was never print ed; and after pursuing his studies with assiduity he was, in 1780, appointed surgeon to the regiment .artge in the Wurtemberg army. This promotion enabled him to print the Robbers at his own expense, as no bookseller could be found to undertake it.